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Choose one idea for someone on your Christmas list, then gather the supplies for that present. There are cards, bookmarks and little pictures, with shimmering colours if you want a finishing touch.
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...Because what's on the outside can be just as beautiful as what's on the inside!
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Choose a small design they would recognise, such as a favourite flower or their pet. |
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Sketch it lightly in pencil, then paint with a few colours, leaving some paper white. |
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Hot tip: if you sketch in watercolour pencils, your draft will wash away when you add colour! |
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Winsor & Newton Cotman Postcard Set6 postcards · 3 colours · brush + palette
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Art Spectrum Watercolour Postcards10 × A6 · 300gsm cotton
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Mont Marte Watercolour Postcards24 postcards · 300gsm cotton · tin
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WAS $63.95NOW $47.96
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WAS $16.95NOW $10.17
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WAS $15.95NOW $13.56
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| Add a message in the included black drawing ink. The set also supplies three Cotman tubes, a paint brush, a water brush and a palette. |
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Write straight onto the address lines on the back of these blank cotton-paper cards. |
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Ivory paper and rounded corners give these postcards a different look. The tin protects the unused cards on your travels. |
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Make a little painting to tuck inside their next read!
Ready-cut
Choose a Mont Marte bookmark or a preprinted Jasart card. Check it fits their book; the long Jasart cards can be trimmed. Paint the design, then let it dry.
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Cut your own
Mark a strip on the Marine paper with a pencil and ruler, then cut with scissors and paint your own design. Finish with their name on the back (& a ribbon for a little extra touch!)
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Mont Marte Watercolour Bookmark Set33 pieces · 12 bookmarks
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Art Spectrum Marine Landscape Pad45 × 15cm · 300gsm cotton · 15 sheets
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Jasart Voyager Watercolour Card Pad20 cards · 9 half pans · brush
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WAS $17.95NOW $13.46
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WAS $24.95NOW $17.47
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WAS $20.95NOW $17.81
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| Ten printed designs and two blank bookmarks come with eight paints, a water brush and twelve tassels to tie on once dry. |
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The blank 45 × 15cm sheets leave you free to choose the bookmark’s width and design. |
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Twenty preprinted 26 × 8cm designs, with nine half pans (small cakes of dry colour), a brush and a mixing palette. |
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Even the tag can be a gift!
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Prepare Gather watercolour paper, water, scissors, a hole punch and string. Use a brush and mixing space from your set, or bring your own. |
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Choose Pick a small design, such as a leaf, a bauble or colourful dots. Try the colours on scrap watercolour paper first. |
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Paint Repeat the design on your paper, leaving room for each name. Let it dry, then cut out the tags and add a hole and string. |
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Reeves Vintage Watercolour Tin160 half pans · 2 brushes
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Mont Marte Watercolour Half Pan Sets36 or 72 half pans
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Stacking watercolour discsKoh-I-Noor from 12 colours · Micador 6 colours
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WAS from $32.95NOW from $26.36
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From $12.50 |
| A water brush and a paint brush sit inside the anniversary tin, alongside the full colour selection. |
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Thirty-six pans with a blank colour chart to fill in, or 72 pans with 22 metallics in a tin. |
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Twist the discs together for storage and use the lid as a mixing palette. The Micador disc has an autumn colour selection. |
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Paint a shared memory on location, then give them the picture.
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Pack Choose a beach, park or holiday view that means something to you both. Take watercolour paper and a firm surface to rest it on. |
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Paint Fill the Mont Marte or Art Spectrum water brush, whose handle holds the water. Paint one part of the view while you’re there. |
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Give Once the picture is dry, write the place, date and a memory on the back. |
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Mont Marte Watercolour Tins18, 24 or 36 colours · water brush
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Art Spectrum Watercolour Pans24 colours · aqua brush + palette
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Byron Watercolour Pocket Travel Set24 half pans · water cup
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WAS from $19.95NOW from $16.96
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WAS $42.95NOW $34.36
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$19.95 |
| A thumb ring helps you hold the tin while you paint; the palette and sponge travel inside. |
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A sea sponge adds another way to apply colour, alongside the aqua brush and mixing palette. |
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The pocket case opens into mixing palettes and a water cup. A finger slot underneath helps you hold it. |
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Turn the flower they always stop to admire into a picture to keep.
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Choose Gather watercolour paper and water, plus a brush and palette if your set doesn’t include them. Choose a real flower or photo for reference, then test petal and leaf colours on scrap paper. |
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Paint Paint a few flowers and leaves with space around them. Use a lighter mix for pale petals and a stronger mix where you want deeper colour. |
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Finish Let the picture dry, then outline the petals & add shading using a fineliner. Write the flower’s name and your Christmas message on the back. |
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Winsor & Newton Cotman Half Pans12, 14 or 45 half pans
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Kuretake Gansai Tambi Sets12 to 48 colours
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Derwent Inktense Paint Pans12 pans · travel set
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WAS from $110.00NOW from $59.15
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WAS from $36.95NOW from $29.56
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WAS $54.95NOW $49.46
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| The 14-pan pocket box has a clip-on water dish; the 12-pan set has a brush pen. The studio box has 45 pans: 40 colours plus five repeats. |
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Choose a boxed palette or the 14-colour portable set with its own water brush. All six selections contain Japanese watercolours. |
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Once fully dissolved with water and dry, Inktense colour becomes permanent, so later wet layers need not lift the first. |
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Tube paint lets you mix a pool of colour for each part of the sunset.
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Mix Choose a sunset photo or memory. Bring watercolour paper, a brush, a palette and water, then squeeze out a little colour and mix it for the sky. |
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Paint On watercolour paper, paint broad bands of colour. Let the sky dry before adding a dark horizon. |
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Finish Write where you saw it on the back once dry. Add a frame if you’d like it ready to hang. |
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Winsor & Newton Cotman Tube Sets10 or 20 × 5ml
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Mont Marte Premium Watercolours8 × 8ml tubes
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WAS from $47.95NOW from $40.76
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WAS $10.95NOW $9.31
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| Both selections include orange, purple and blues. The 20-colour set also adds Chinese White and a wider choice of earth colours. |
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Lemon Yellow, Rose Magenta and Dioxazine Purple are among the eight colours for mixing your sky. |
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Match the brush to the size of the marks in your coastal picture.
Sea and sky
Choose a coast they love. Use the full part of a squirrel brush for broad areas of sea and sky.
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Shoreline
Switch to a pointed tip for a headland, boat or line along the shore. The Kolinsky pair springs back to a point for smaller marks.
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To finish
Bring watercolour paints, paper, a palette and water. Let the picture dry, then add a note about the place before giving it.
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Art Spectrum Casan Squirrel BrushesNo. 6 and No. 8 · gift box
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Art Spectrum Casan Squirrel MopNo. 4 · gift box
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Art Spectrum Kolinsky Sable BrushesNo. 6 and No. 10 · gift box
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| $74.95 |
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$74.95 |
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$93.95 |
| Two brush sizes let you move between wider and narrower strokes without changing the squirrel-hair feel. |
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One No. 4 mop, a full, soft brush with a pointed end, in an Art Spectrum gift box. |
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The No. 6 and No. 10 sable brushes come together in a gift box. |
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A wreath of leaves turns their initial into a little picture.
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Prepare Gather paints, watercolour paper, a pencil, a palette and water. Pencil their initial in the centre and a loose circle of leaves around it. |
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Paint Use a broader brush for leaves and a smaller tip for stems. Let the surrounding colour dry before painting the initial. |
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Finish Keep some white space around the design. Once dry, add a message on the back before giving it. |
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Cotman Heritage Brush Set5 brushes · wooden box
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Dynasty Water Lily Brush Set5 brushes · wooden box
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WAS $129.95NOW $97.46
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WAS $69.95NOW $62.96
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| The synthetic Cotman selection combines round, angled, one-stroke and fine designers brushes in a wooden box. |
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Water Lily combines soft synthetic brushes with short handles, including a fan shape for spreading marks. |
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Try a small night painting for someone who loves looking up.
Shifting colour
Granulating paint separates into different colours in a watery mix. Test it on the paper you’ll use for the sky; the effect changes with paper and water.
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Dark tones
Add water to the Sumi colours for a lighter sky, then use a stronger mix for a dark horizon.
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Moonlight
Leave a small circle of paper white for the moon. Bring a brush, palette, water and watercolour paper. Add a message once dry, and a frame if you’d like it ready to hang.
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Kuretake Gansai Tambi Granulating Set5 large pans
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Kuretake Gansai Tambi Sumi Set6 large pans
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WAS $39.95NOW $31.96
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WAS $33.95NOW $27.16
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| Aurora Red, Pink, Orange, Blue and Violet, with an extra empty pan for mixing. |
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Sumi Red, Yellow, Green, Blue, Violet and Brown, in six large pans. |
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Choose the kind of shine you want for your finishing touches.
Glitter or metallic
Byron adds glitter. Mont Marte and Gansai Gem add metallic colour; Starry gives you gold-based shades.
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Try an accent
Let your painting dry. Test a few marks on a painted scrap of the same paper, then add an initial, bauble or detail to your gift.
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Supplies
Bring water and mixing space. Byron and Gansai need your own brush; the selected Mont Marte packs include one.
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Byron Glitter Watercolour Palette12 glitter colours · tin
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Mont Marte Metallic Watercolours36 cakes, or 18 in a tin
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Kuretake Gansai Tambi Gem and StarryGem or Starry · 6 pans per set
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WAS $39.95NOW $33.96
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WAS from $12.95NOW from $10.36
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WAS $33.95NOW $27.16
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| The glitter palette comes in a tin inside a windowed gift box. |
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Thirty-six metallic colours with mixing wells in the lid, or 18 in a tin with a water brush. |
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Gem combines five coloured metallics with Yellow Gold. Starry includes Blue Gold and Pale Gold among its six shades. |
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Choose someone you love, choose something they love, and paint it for them this Christmas.
